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For a few years Leatt has been getting deeper into the high end gear market and I’ve been lucky enough to test a few different lines. A while ago Kris (Keefer) gave me a set of 2019 GPX 5.5 gear and told me to put it through the testing ringer. Since then I’ve been wearing this set exclusively whether it be moto or off-road and have been loving the looks of the new colorway as well. I wanted to give you all quick first impression of the gear, but look for a more in depth test in a couple months, when I get more miles on the 5.5 pant and jersey.
The fit of the Leatt 5.5 gear is top notch, not being too tight or too baggy. Sizing is correct and there are no surprises when putting on any of the Leatt pieces. The jersey is made out of a lightweight, vented and stretchy material. In the armpits of the jersey there are multiple vent holes to help keep hot spots to a minimum. The torso and arm area are athletic fitting without squeezing the body and has just enough material so there is a thin layer of ventilation between your body and the jersey. One thing I didn’t care for on the jersey were the cuffs. The taped seams that are used on the welded cuffs are a rubbery plastic material that came un-bonded from the jersey material itself and just hung off. When riding off-road the jersey got some small snags from branches, but they never grew larger than just a small snag. The jersey is very comfortable, soft to the skin, and breathes well when you start to sweat.
The I.K.S. steel pant, like the jersey, has a great fit. It is an athletic fit from your waist all the way down your legs without being too tight. I have zero issues with the pant stretching comfortably around my knee braces, nor does it hinder my movement on the bike. The pant is made mostly of a four-way stretch/Rip Stop material so while it looks tight, it’s really just comfortable and form fitting. Leatt uses its Internal Knee Brace System (I.K.S.) on the inside of the knee area to prevent excessive knee brace wear or tearing, which it did because the knee area have held up great. On the original set of pants I received I did have an issue with the zipper. The first ride out, the zipper came off the bottom and both sides of the zipper were disconnected. I was able to get it re-zipped, but then when zipped back up, the zipper below the top came undone and could not unzip. I contacted Leatt and they sent me out a new set of pants and I never had this issue again after several uses. Looking back, I don’t think this is a flaw in the pant, I just think it was a fluke malfunction that happened. However to keep up with the transparency here at Keefer Inc. Testing, I still wanted to let the reader know everything that has happened with the Leatt set of gear. If this happens to you please contact them and they can remedy the issue for you. One aspect about the pant that really stood out to me was that in some situations they had a hard time staying up. I’d like to say it’s because I’m so skinny, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. When accelerating out of ruts that have acceleration bumps, the stretch material on the butt of the pants (or yolk) gets pulled down. Coming out of corners with acceleration chop can make the pant pull down slightly throughout the duration of a moto. This obviously didn’t happen if the track forced me to stand a lot, but when there was a lot of sitting and chop it was noticeable. The best way I found to combat this was to tighten the buckle a little tighter than I normally would. The adjustable ratchet latch always worked well as well as the zipper (aside from the first set of pants I previously mentioned).
Overall, I think Leatt is a real contender in the high-end gear market and will only improve over time. I will keep putting more time on the 5.5 set of gear over the next few months and report back with all of my findings. Feel free to reach out to me at Michael@Keeferinctesting.com if you have any questions regarding the Leatt 5.5 gear set.
-Michael Allen
